31.7.13

The essentials of aviation

The world of choices

Some promises are to be kept. As a horribly nonsurprising result I took the weaponry under my gaze. The extra tools I advertised earlier in the project couldn't all fit under the wings so I had to do some ruthless cherryr-picking. I guess no one's surprised that the extra fuel tanks were the first ones to be left at the airfield, the normal bombs being the next ones. So, in the end, the plane that took off on a ground assault mission was loaded with two UB-32M-57 rocket pods, two heavy-ish individually packed S-25 OFM rockets and just in case with a pair of R-60 short range AA missiles.

Gear up!

Preparing the aforementioned pieces was a pretty quick subproject, as one could've expected. I cleaned up a bunch of mold lines and crap away and pondered for a moment if I dared to file the missile's canards and wings a bit. No, I didn't dare yet, but maybe later.

Bomb racks

These tools of the trade need to be carried somehow, but the sprue only had two launch racks. As a really bad DIY person I was quite concerned and a bit scared of building my own pieces, but when I was thinking of the whole thing I realized something important. Those pretty small bomb racks would be boringly sandwiched between the wings and the much more interesting (and larger) weapons, not inviting for any real attention on themselves, so maybe I'd survive this one.
Johonkin nuo vehkeet pitäisi saada roikkumaankin, mutta rangassa oli vain kaksi laukaisukiskoa

Simply put: I sliced off a couple of pieces from a sheet of 1mm polystyrene in more-or-less square shapes, using the proper pieces for guidance. Next I took the first piece for prototyping and again with the original as a guide I mengelefied it into some sort of a copy. "Close enough" was my decision and I carried on.

Without a proper carving tool (and skills) I didn't even want to try to copy all the few grooves on the surface. I was content with copying that somehow visible vertical line in front of the piece. Yes, I know, all of those parts are a bit differently shaped and whatnot, but as I said before, close enough for pieces that won't be the main attraction anyway.

Somehow I came up with the thought of including a setting plug only in the last two pieces. I guess I was so carried away with the work in general that I didn't even notice or think of the whole thing. "Do two new pieces with those plugs" you suggest? I think they'll stick well enough as they are.